Restaurant Sues Florida Over Ban on Minors Attending Drag Shows

A restaurant chain has filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida over a recently-enacted law forbidding minors from attending drag performances.

As Politico reports, Hamburger Mary’s is claiming that Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) and his administration are violating their First Amendment rights to freedom of expression by banning them from hosting drag shows for underaged children. The lawsuit, filed in central Florida, claims that the law has “a chilling effect on protected speech.”

The law, which was signed by DeSantis on Wednesday, is part of a broader agenda carried out by the Republican-dominated state legislature to rein in the ideology of “transgenderism,” which seeks to sexually indoctrinate children with the notion that they can choose their gender at any given time. The law prohibits children from attending “lewd” performances, such as strip clubs or drag shows in which grown, often gay, men dress and act like women.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim that the law is so broad that it could ban “even the most innocent drag performances.”

The Hamburger Mary’s chain also demanded that a judge issue a temporary restraining order to block the state from implementing and enforcing the law.

The law is similar to others that have been passed by Republican-led states in recent months, as awareness of the issue of transgenderism is on the rise and backlash among conservative voters grows stronger. Other states that have taken action include Tennessee, which saw a recent mass shooting in Nashville by a biological female who identified as male; she carried out her shooting at a Presbyterian school, killing children and adults, presumably in retaliation for the anti-trans stances of the school and the state.